Makiko's New World

Early in the 20th century new opportunities were opened to Japanese women, thanks to modern home use
goods and to the new technologies of self-awareness offered by snapshot cameras, family albums, and mass
produced diary books.

Nakano Makiko and her family were on the hinge of historical change in 1910, the year that she kept a
daily record of her activities as the young wife in a busy merchant household in Kyoto. Makiko's New World transports its viewers into the almost-forgotten milieu of urban Japan a century ago. The program blends historical photos and film footage with pictures from family albums and with
dramatized re-enactments of events Makiko recorded in her diary.

The program is suitable for classroom use in secondary schools, colleges, and universities, and for civic
study groups. For class sessions shorter than 50 minutes the program can be shown in two segments of
approximately 29 minutes each. It can also be used in conjunction with Kazuko Smith's prize winning
English translation, Makiko's Diary (1995) available from Stanford University press.

Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards
Selected for screening by the Asian Studies Association.